Immunological Basis of Symptomatology in Ocular Diseases

Hypersensitivity reactions are our own immune responses to various triggering factors. These immune responses result in different clinical presentations of various ocular diseases. Various cytokines, interleukins are responsible for a myriad of symptoms and thus our therapy should be targeted on specific immunological pathways. In this article we have summarized various ocular diseases with the causative immune pathways thus simplifying the underlying cause. This article will help in understanding why similar looking diseases may have requirement for different modalities of treatment or why similar medications may work in different ocular diseases. Abstract The mast cells play a major role in pathogenesis of immune reactions. The ocular mast cells are present mainly in substantia propria of the conjunctiva, although they are also found in in lesser numbers in the choroid stroma and meninges of the optic nerve (perivascular location). 16 Mediators released by mast cells can be classified into two groups: